When Twilight Comes - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,8

she’d gotten away. Gotten away with her daughter. When in truth, it was just a cat-and-mouse game with Lorenzo. He’d known that he could end it in an instant when he was ready.

Had he taken Lexi knowing Jenna would come after her? Had he just been looking for a reason to come after her and kill her? Not that he needed one.

She shuddered, telling herself that nothing could change the course of events. And if she’d never married him, she wouldn’t have Lexi.

Jenna’s heart broke at the thought that she might not be able to protect Lexi from her father. It had been a last resort, taking her back from Lorenzo the way she had. Now she couldn’t let her daughter down. No matter what she had to do, she thought. Shifting the cat she reached for the gun still in her jacket pocket.

“Lookee!” Lexi angled a tiny finger out into the darkness beside the road.

Jenna had to crane her neck to see where she was pointing. Lights glowed from out of the fog. High up on the side of the mountain she could make out the top spires of a building poking up out of the trees and mist.

And there on the hillside was a sign, barely visible in the gloom. The neon outline of a woman in an old-fashioned bathing suit, in a diving pose. Underneath her, the words Fernhaven Grand Opening. The date on the sign was in three weeks.

There was definitely something up the road—a huge building, the lights glowing faintly through the swirling mist.

“I want to go there!” Lexi cried. “Please, Mommy? Clarice wants to, too. She said she wouldn’t be scared at all if we went there.”

“I don’t think it’s open yet,” Jenna said. Whatever it was. “But we’ll go see.”

As she moved forward, the glow of lights high on the mountainside became clearer. No wonder she hadn’t noticed them earlier from the highway.

If she could get her daughter somewhere warm and dry, she could call for a wrecker. They just needed someplace to wait. It had to be close to midnight by now.

The freshly paved road wound up the mountain. They hadn’t gone far when she had to put Lexi down and catch her breath. After that, the child insisted on walking. Thankfully Jenna had grabbed a sweater for her daughter. She put it over the footed duck pj’s. Jenna carried Fred, but Lexi wouldn’t give up her rag doll, Clarice. The going was slow, the darkness around them intense. Along the road the trees were dense and dark.

Jenna was beginning to think this was a mistake when they crested a hill and the road abruptly widened. There, shrouded in fog, was a huge castlelike building looming out of the night.

She couldn’t contain the chill that moved over her.

Fred dug his claws into her arm, seconding Jenna’s thoughts. This place gave her the creeps, too.

“It’s a castle,” Lexi cried.

If this was a castle, then an evil count lived here, Jenna thought. But then, she’d been living with evil for some time. She still wondered how she could have been so deceived by Lorenzo. Why hadn’t she seen what kind of man he was before she’d married him? She knew the answer. Lorenzo was very adept at hiding his true nature. But living with him, she’d quickly seen through his facade right down to his black soul.

As tired as she was, she wouldn’t have been surprised if the hotel turned out to be a mirage. But all the lights were on in the huge lobby, and she could see someone inside.

“Come on, Mommy,” Lexi said, and ran toward the wide front steps.

The air was damp and cold. Jenna could hear a roar as if there was a waterfall nearby. She caught up to Lexi, taking her hand. As they ascended the wide steps, Jenna looked up.

The face of a man appeared at one of the third-floor windows. She had the distinct impression he’d been watching them as if waiting for them. Maybe the hotel was open to guests, after all.

She had little more than an impression of him before he was gone.

HARRY BALLANTINE WASN’T sure what had made him go to the window and look out. Just a feeling.

Even more odd was what he saw from the window: a slight-framed woman with a young child, and something in her arms. A cat.

So what had drawn him to the window after all these years?

Apparently the woman.

She was dressed all in black, her dark hair pulled